Instinct to Protect
by Raining Sky Guy
Summary: Ichigo had sworn he would protect his friends and he would do so even at the cost of his life. Sadly for the other occupants of his soul, that has become an ingrained instinct that will push them all beyond death when facing Ulquiorra. Shirosaki doesn't exactly like that his King is such a hero-complex.


**Ever since **_ESSO_** (sounds ridiculous so I'll leave the whole name of the fic here anyway: **_Every Subject's Soul is his Own)_** I haven't been able to stop thinking about these three, so here's another story about them.**

**IMPORTANT: This is during the Ulquiorra x Ichigo fight. The one where Ichigo turns into a full hollow. Just sayin' in case it's not clear.**

* * *

They had stormed Soul Society to rescue the Rukia girl. Shirosaki would have thought that that had been enough rescuing-damsel-in-distress for a lifetime. Yet, here they were, storming Hueco Mundo to rescue the damn Inoue —Shiro was still pissed that she still feared him, weakening his bond with King. But still the hollow had helped because he had to (and because Zangetsu had nagged him) and had kept his stupid King alive. Okay, he _and _Zangetsu.

But then, King fought with —or rather got pummeled by — that Ulquiorra (Shiro still recoiled at the _emptiness _that being exuded) and everything turned fuzzy just before Ulquiorra landed the finishing blow and killed them off as everything turned black.

Or so Zangetsu and Shiro had assumed, before they felt the tell-tale urge to heal —that surely meant that the strange female had reached them in time to halt Ichigo's death. Heck, if not for the bitch's trick that stopped time, they would have died _seconds _later. Right now they were in limbo, hovering over nothingness…

"Oi, King don't come back! Ya' don't have ta come back! It's over already, don't live!" Shiro pleads echoed in the void that had become Kurosaki Ichigo. Zangetsu was screaming similar things, yet there was something akin to static and all Shirosaki could hear from him was a muffled yell. Yet their King wasn't listening.

King couldn't listen.

Whatever part of himself that was struggling to come back to the real world was a mere residue from when they had indeed been alive. But Shiro and Zangetsu had had enough. King had done his best, didn't he deserve to rest?

What good would it do to come back, when all that'd happen would be their King being brutally mauled to the death? _Again?_

_._

Robbed of everything but a weak link to each other, both Zangetsu and Shirosaki were more than willing to let Ichigo's friends die, so long as they got out with the least amount of pain. Had they still been in full control of themselves, maybe they'd have thought of giving it a chance. If Ichigo had been alive enough, he would have demanded to keep on living and save his friends…

Shiro really wanted to know, why was it that of all three of them, the one with the sovereign over their body had absolutely no sense of self-preservation. Or even, sense at all to see that living right now would only result in more pain before death.

Though Zangetsu might have sided with Ichigo had the necessity to live surged from Ichigo himself, from his own _desire_ of life, and not for something as ridiculous as 'protect his friends'. Ichigo would certainly get mad, but they all had their own priorities and both Zangetsu's and Shiro's top priority was to keep the idiotic King safe. Then came staying alive.

Had anyone not part of a soul heard this, they would most likely not get why 'safe' was not a synonym to 'alive'. But for one, Shirosaki was a _hollow_, and the three of them had already died once at some point already. Zangetsu and he both knew that even in death, they wouldn't be separated. That there still was something else after death gave them rest. Though most of the time, being alive also meant being safe, this was definitively _not _the case.

"KING! GIVE IT A REST ALREADY! FUCK OFF! YA' DON'T EVEN WANT TA LIVE!" The hollow bellowed angrily feeling something —_ichigo —_tugging insistently at him, demanding of him, pleading with him…

"_Tired…Have to…defeat…Ulquiorra…_" Came the whisper and something finally sparked in the void, and finally he could see Zangetsu's figure approaching his.

"You don't have to do anything, Ichigo. I won't let you live unless you want to do so."

A distant part of Shiro sardonically mused that this had to be the most perverse, distorted and bizarre pep-talk _ever_. Well, they never had been quite normal anyway.

"…_defeat…have to…tired…Ulqui…orra…"_

"Shut up already and rest!" Shiro bellowed once again, pretty pissed at the moment. The zanpakuto spirit was about to add something else when…

"_-kun! HELP us, Kurosaki-KUN_ _!"_

'_Fuck that bitch' _was all the hollow could think before something warm and urgent and frantic engulfed them like a tsunami.

"_Ulquiorra…defeat…protect…friends…protect …Inoue…friend…protect…I have…to protect my FRIENDS!"_

And Shirosaki felt fear, because that mantra that some part of Ichigo was chanting had become an _instinct_. And instincts were no rational thoughts. Even worse, this instinct was so strong that it would ignore the body's condition in order to do what it needed to do.

And if he body was still dead…it would just figure out a way to make things work.

Shirosaki felt himself being pushed to the throne and it was the first time he didn't want it. Ichigo's instinct to protect was calling out for Shiro's own instinct which was his entire irrational hollow. In that fabricated throne, there was no room for thinking or even living. He felt the metaphorical chains clasped on his entire being, pushing him to his new seat and using him. The Hollow was highly unnerved, he could feel that after everything was done, the body would definitively collapse and die.

"Calm down, Shirosaki." A murmur broke him from his panic, and the monochromatic Ichigo relaxed minutely at seeing Zangetsu beside him, despite feeling his power being drained. "Even a phony throne is still a throne. Demand your control. What can you do? What can your powers do, now that they reign over this body?"

And it hit him. Regeneration. It would have been near impossible —given the amount of damage done —if not for the fact that they were all but a full-fledged hollow.

"Ya' keep him from going too nuts. And I'll focus on getting that shit ta activate." The phony King commanded, even as he set to do as told.

But even so, it was hard. Hollows were mere instincts; the need to eat, to fight, to grow, to kill. And Ichigo had created a hollow with the single instinct to protect. _It _was the one in real control, so Shiro and Zangetsu could only do so much. Even worse, the one at the top was still chained, being drained as if he were the only power supply left. Maybe he was.

Ironically, it had been the one who killed them, that ended up being their saving grace.

.

As soon as the new hollow had been killed —or rather, erased— they experienced a certain jolt. Shiro's phony throne became the real deal, chains slipping away and with a booming laughter, Shiro could finally set the regeneration to start —using the remnants of that 'Protect Hollow'— while Zangetsu slumped beside him. Brow sweating profusely, the white being turned to his partner-in-crime —feeling pity for him— before he said, "Call that idiot back. I'll be too tired ta rule this fucked up kingdom. And I'm not in the mood ta hear him whine that I have no right ta be in the throne."

Zangetsu gave him an amused smile —the gall! — before disappearing to do as told. Shirosaki felt smug, that had been his first order as King. That and the regeneration. It was funny how, in his short period as king, he'd had been a far better ruler than Ichigo.

But, when the regeneration finished, the hollow spirit was merely glad he felt King take the reins before his vision darkened and his muscles became mush.

"You did well." He heard Zangetsu's approval, and a smile curved his lips, before he was sent to snooze in their inner world. Ruling a body was certainly tiring.

"Well, I reserve the right ta beat him to a pulp after this." He muttered to Zangetsu while half-asleep. " Someun' needs ta tell him the trouble he got us in. He and that stupid Instinct to Protect of his. We don't need more hollows other than me."

"Although I agree, I suggest not saying that last thing to Ichigo. Besides, that was another part of you, it won't exactly help your case."

"Tch. Shut up. I'm still beating him up."

"I know."

* * *

**Huh. Ichigo is in for a good one. Okay, I want to point out that what Ichigo really said as a full Hollow was "**_Save friends" _**or something of the like, but it's more or less of the same to protect, right?**

**Question time: What do you think about the relationship between these three? Or two, since Ichigo was unconscious for most of the time… -.-**

**(Also: Would you like to see more of them?)**

**Anyway, thank you for reading and don't forget to review!**


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